The present invention relates generally to parallel reactors, and in particular, to parallel research reactors suitable for use in a combinatorial (i.e., high-throughput) science research program in which chemical reactions are conducted simultaneously using small volumes of reaction materials to efficiently and economically screen large libraries of chemical materials.
Parallel reactors of this type are disclosed in co-owned International Application No. PCT/US99/18358, filed Aug. 12, 1999 by Turner et al., entitled Parallel Reactor with Internal Sensing and Method of Using Same, published Feb. 24, 2000 (International Publication No. WO 00/09255), which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. This PCT application claims priority from the following co-owned U.S. applications bearing the same title, all of which are also incorporated by reference for all purposes: U.S. application Ser. No. 09/211,982, filed Dec. 14, 1998 by Turner et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 6,306,658, issued Oct. 23, 2001; U.S. Ser. No. 09/177,170, filed Oct. 22, 1998 by Dales et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 6,548,026, issued Apr. 15, 2003; and U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/096,603, filed Aug. 13, 1998 by Dales et al. Parallel reactors of the type to which the present invention relates are also disclosed in co-owned U.S. application Ser. No. 09/548,848, filed Apr. 13, 2000 by Turner et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,316, issued Sep. 24, 2002, entitled Parallel Reactor with Internal Sensing and Method of Using Same, the U.S. national application based on the aforementioned PCT application; U.S. application Ser. No. 09/239,223, filed Jan. 29, 1999 by Wang et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,168, issued Dec. 3, 2002, entitled Analysis and Control of Parallel Chemical Reactions; and U.S. application Ser. No. 09/873,176, filed Jun. 1, 2001 by Nielsen et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,827, issued Feb. 7, 2006, entitled Parallel Semicontinuous or Continuous Stirred Reactors, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/209,142, filed Jun. 3, 2000, and Ser. No. 60/255,716, filed Dec. 14, 2000 by Nielsen et al., bearing the same title, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes. These applications disclose a number of embodiments for parallel research reactors suitable for use, for example, in combinatorial chemistry applications such as polymer research and catalyst research.
However, these embodiments are not well suited for introducing precise, reproducible amounts of low boiling reaction materials (i.e., substances having a boiling point no greater than about 25° C. at a pressure of one atmosphere) into the reaction vessels of the reactor. This is because such materials are in the gas phase at typical ambient temperature and pressure conditions. In order to better control the quantity of low boiling reaction materials introduced into the vessels of a parallel reactor, it would be desirable to deliver such substances in a condensed, liquid phase form to the reaction vessels of the reactor. However, previous parallel reactor systems are lacking in this capability. There is a need, therefore, for a system capable of handling such materials.
The present invention is also generally related to systems for effecting the transfer of fluid materials, particularly low boiling reaction materials in the form of liquids, to the reaction vessels of a parallel reactor system. Such fluid transfer systems include robotic fluid transfer systems of the type comprising a cannula for holding fluid material, and a robot system for transporting the cannula to a fluid transfer location.